DNR finds ‘no impact’ from year-round higher water levels

“Biologically, we’ve come to terms with the year-round water level and there is no impact at all,” Jean Romback-Bartels, secretary’s director for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, said May 12.

Romback-Bartels’ comment referred to the proposal to maintain the water level at the Shawano paper mill dam at 802.9 feet above mean sea level year-round. She is the agency administrator with water issue responsibilities for northeastern counties.

David Fox said there has not seen any negative impact from the higher water level and the dam’s operation. Fox is director of regulatory process for Eagle Creek Renewable Energy, the dam’s operator. The dam’s electric’s output goes exclusively to power the adjacent Little Rapids Paper Mill, Fox added.

The DNR, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Shawano Area Waterways Management and other local organizations are seeking a permanent solution to the ongoing controversy for levels in Shawano Lake, the channel and the Wolf River pool above the Shawano paper mill dam.

Fox said ECRE wants to pursue a two-year temporary amendment before addressing the permanent change from the Federal Energy Resources Commission. FERC is the national agency with jurisdiction over dams.

An additional year “will buy us adequate time to get the permitting process done,” Fox added.

Romback-Bartels agrees with ECRE’s plan to apply for a two-year amendment to its current operating permit.

“It affords us the opportunity, meaning all groups affected, to take a look at the one outstanding issue of impacts of going year-round,” she said.

That “one outstanding issue” is the potential flood impact above the paper mill dam, requiring a hydrologic and hydraulic study, she said.

Romback-Bartels said she would consult her staff in coming days to confirm the need for the study and gather suggestions for funding.

She said, although there is adequate internal staffing, the DNR would have to contract additional resources for the study and does not have readily available funds.

Romback-Bartels explained her agency now has five years of data on the seasonal water level changes and noted there were some impacts.

As opposed to the potential hazards of seasonal changes, “critters that need to burrow into the mud” to survive the winter won’t have to contend with the possibility of water that is too low, Romback-Bartels continued.

Those “critters” include frogs, turtles and salamanders, the agency director said. They are important parts of the food chain, including for desirable game fish such as walleyes, she added.

In spring, the watershed, especially below the paper mill dam, needs to have enough water long enough to support spawning.

“The interesting thing about the system is that when they start to fill up the lake, the sturgeon have already spawned as well as walleye, red horse and white bass” but the need is to keep eggs wet and oxygenated, the DNR director explained.

Noting fish in Shawano Lake have the same need, Romback-Bartels concluded, “A year-round level avoids all of those possible impacts.”

The DNR’s next steps will be to get in its comments into the FERC in a timely fashion during the regulatory process, Romback-Bartels said. It will also “absolutely be reaching out” to ECRE, SAWM and other organizations, probably including help on funding for the study, she said.

Bill Monfre, a SAWM board member involved in the water level resolution, said he was hopeful that FERC would act on the temporary amendment by June. He said he is hopeful that the area waters will return to the higher water levels by the Fourth of July weekend and will continue to attract boaters to the area.

Romback-Bartels added the agency will continue to balance all of the needs of stakeholders throughout the Wolf River watershed. Fox said the dam operator is also “interested in balancing all of the interest of all stakeholders.”

FERC initially concurred with Shawano resident Brian Knapp’s May 2015 complaint of high water and ice damage to his riverside residence and ordered a drawdown of the water at the paper mill dam from 802.9 feet msl to 802.5 feet msl. The 802.9 foot level had been the norm since at least 1985.

Knapp politely but firmly declined on May 10 to comment on the efforts this year to permanently resolve the issue. Manager of Shawano Municipal Utilities and a riverside resident, Knapp said he didn’t have anything to offer beyond the contents of his original letter to FERC. In it, he complained of high water levels and damage from ice to his property.

ECRE acknowledged in a letter to FERC that the dam exceeded authorized water levels on three occasions in 2013 and 2014 due to above-average amounts of precipitation. Dam operations were automated in 2016, resulting in more consistent water levels.

Since that initial order, there has been pushback from boating groups, waterfront landowners, fishing groups and other organizations representing interests above and below the paper mill dam.

One effort has been a yearly request from local groups, spearheaded by SAWM, to make a seasonal adjustment back to the 802.9 level, a level believed to enhance safety of boating but also protect fisheries. Fishing groups, such as Walleyes for Tomorrow and Sturgeon for Tomorrow, have contended the lower water levels endangered spawning and other habitat.

The controversy has also spawned rumors ranging from the low water levels hosting blastomycosis, a deadly bacterial disease, to numbers of injured boaters being treated at local emergency rooms and urgent care facilities.

Typical of the results in the past five years was the FERC order of June 2020. The regulatory body accepted the ECRE proposal to keep the level at a target normal elevation of 802.9 feet msl between May 15 and Nov. 15, or 0.4 foot above the authorized normal impoundment elevation of 802.5 feet msl.

This year, records from the Shawano paper mill dam operator show the water is being maintained at the level required by FERC despite local observations of the water being too low.

FERC noted its awareness of the need for additional environmental analysis of raising the water level and a clear definition of the “ice-free months” during which the dam would operate at the higher level, according to a June 2018 article in the Shawano Leader.